The Talisman

To coincide with the publication of Stephen King and Peter Straub's extraordinary new thriller, BLACK HOUSE, here is the story that started it all. On a brisk autumn day, a twelve-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America--and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother's life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin. . . .

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub was my first trek into the world of Travelin' Jack Sawyer and the Territories, and as a fan of King's Dark Tower series (of which this eventually became a companion novel), I was delighted to go back to a time when the Dark Tower universe was young and largely unexplored. Or as King might phrase it, most of the fossil had yet to be discovered. Getting comfortable with Jack's world takes some time even though everything seems similar to our own. In the beginning, at least. It wouldn't be a classic King novel without plenty of supernatural surprises along the way. Part of the fun is experiencing the journey from Jack's perspective, and Jack has no idea what he's in for so we get to learn and grow with him.